Legacy
Long before the Vigo County History Center opened its doors at its current location at 929 Wabash Ave. in downtown Terre Haute, the county’s historical collection was hosted and cared for by the Vigo County Historical Society.
The society held its very first meeting on December 30, 1922, at the former Emeline Fairbanks Library. With 14 local residents, the group formed the “Historical Society of Vigo County”, which was incorporated in February 1923.
It was that year that the first item was gifted to the Historical Society, letters written from John G. Davis in 1857. Davis was a farmer and politician, serving four terms as a U.S. representative from Indiana. He later moved to Terre Haute.
The letters covered the Missouri compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and other events. The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, creating an area covering the present-day states of Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, and the Dakotas. It created a territory “with or without slavery, as their constitutions may prescribe,” a doctrine known as “popular sovereignty” that would became one of the issues leading up to the Civil War.
The Historical Society opened its first location in the historic Farrington’s Grove neighborhood in May 1958. The Victorian-style home at Sixth Street and Washington Avenue served as the headquarters and museum until the Historical Society purchased the former Ehrmann Manufacturing Co. building from Glidden Furniture in 2013. After construction, restoration, and a large move, the Vigo County History Center opened on Nov. 5, 2019.
Over the years the Historical Society and History Center have been led by amazing women in our community. Marylee Hagan served as executive director of the Historical Society from 1994 to November 2019. At the time Susan Tingley, who had been the development director, took over, serving until December 2020. After an interim period, Marla Flowers was named Executive Director in August 2021.